12 Things About Dan & Blair
by missivthegreat
Summary: Dan Humphrey is looking back on his life, and the importance of certain events/things that have a special meaning to him because of one person. Unexpected. T for later chapters. AU.
1. Chapter 1

**note : This fanfiction is AU; it's based on the original Gossip Girl characters, but has (almost) nothing with the original plot. I thought this would be interesting to write, but also something I would like read, so I decided to share.**

**This is a future fic, it'll have exactly 12 chapters. (I already have it figured).**

**Please review, it'll be appreciated.**

**Xx**

12 Things About Dan And Blair

- Dan Humphrey is looking back on his life, and the importance of certain events/things that have a special meaning to him because of one person. AU.

Dan Humphrey has a life. He has a family, and by family he means a precious 15 year old teenage girl. Dan Humphrey is divorced.

His marriage with Lynette was a mistake before it even started. They weren't quite a match. Or maybe they were, but things just didn't functionate the way they should.

He doesn't know.

Things are complicated, and he leaves it that way because he doesn't feel like resolving them. Maybe it's the age, or maybe he's just not strong enough.

The only thing that keeps him sane, the only thing that keeps him smiling and the only thing that makes him think the life's worth living is that lovely creature that's becoming an adult now.

Her name is Heiley.

"Hey Heil." Dan a mouthful of waffles he was just making "You're late, luckily these are quite warm." he adds eating finishing his last piece in a bit.

She throws her stuff on the floor and stretches out on the sofa in the living room.

"Heiley? Is everything alright?" he asks worriedly coming out of the kitchen appearing right in front of her.

"I'm fine, dad." she tries to fake a smile "I'm just tired."

"And that," he starts, "would work...for somebody else. Maybe. You're lying like your dad my dear. Was everything school alright?" he continues.

"Yeah, it was good."

"What's the matter then? Feel free to tell me, I want to hear no matter how bad it is."

This was true. Judgemental Dan Humphrey was washed with age. He learned to deal with ANY, literally ANY kind of situation.

"I...I found your diary."

"You found my what?" he asks staring in disbelief. He didn't see this coming.

"You know that blue little notebook you keep on shelves in your room? Well, I found it. And before you start yelling it's not my fault that you're.." she stopped "or were, a writer a long time ago. Don't even try to pretend your scriblings aren't everywhere."

"Well...you might be right. I didn't mean to pass judgement on you at all."

Silence.

"So, are you...are you mad?"

He saw this coming. It was just a matter of time, but deep down he knew that his witty little daughter will figure it out sooner or later.

Heiley looks down unable to say anything. She looks slightly disappointed, but her curiosity is much bigger at this moment and she can't resist asking a question. Finally, she opens her mouth to speak :

"Who's Blair?"

xx

"...So she was in the picture before my mother?"

"Absolutely."

"I must admit the plot seems very interesting, I was quite intrigued. Too bad you never had time to finish it."

"I still remember everything. And I think it's time for you to hear it, if you want."

She hesitates for a moment, but then nods.

"I'd like to."

"Then make yourself comfortable 'cause this might take a while. I'll bring some waffles and we can start."

xxx

**The first thing that reminded him of Blair : Pie.**

"Pie?" his daughter was confused.

"Yes. I was thinking Cabbage Patch dolls but..."

"Cabbage patch dolls? Really, what were you, three?" Hailey replies with a slight dose of sarcasm in her voice.

"Maybe." he smiles for himself.

_"B, I want you to meet my boyfriend, this is Dan Humphrey."_

_"Brooklyn in its shape. Nice to meet you,.." she replied still obviously mocking him "Oh wait, what was it again?"_

_Serena frowned and glared at her best friend._

_Blair sighed._

_"Fine."_

_"I'm Blair Waldorf." she tried again while unwillingly shaking hands with him._

_"This is going to be fun." he murmured for himself making sure no one had heard him._

_"Let's eat." Serena suggested breaking the ice between the two._

_"Let's."_

_The next thing he knows is calling her "95 pounds label whoring ...packadge of girly evil." _

_He used to despise Blair, her actions were never understandable, and never, ever excuseable to him._

_She was never fond of him either. _

_All until one Thanksgiving._

_The day when his parents announced their divorce. _

_"Dan, I wish I was with you there." Serena was upset when she heard the news. _

_"I know..." _

_And he really did need her, but he had to understand. Something bad had happened to her brother in Ostroff and as soon as they heard the "news" she and her mother canceled everything else and came there to support Eric._

_Staff took their cellphones, it had to be like that as long as they're there but Serena even remembered to call and say hi. _

_Only...he didn't have anyone to talk to when he needed someone so bad. Alison and Rufus went separate ways while Jenny flung out of the house without even listening to what their parents have to say._

_A loud knock._

_Dan opened the door with a noticeable lack of enthusiasm. But his eyes widened when he saw who was stending on the other side of it._

_"Blair?" he looked up still visibly surprised._

_She was in tears, was sobbing. She seemed quite embarrased for showing up like that but she managed to pluck up the energy and ask:_

_"Is Serena here? All I've been getting in the past hour or two is voicemail."_

_"She's not with me, she's in the Ostroff centre with Lily. Eric issues." he replied shortly. "Is...is everything alright?" he asked._

_"It's a long story."_

_"I have time." _

_She had second thoughts about this, but in a few seconds she blurted out something like_

_"I guess it's acceptable, if you have pie." _

_Dan half-smiled, "Come in."_

xx

_"So you're making pie on your own?"_

_"I won't lie saying it's a tradition 'cause it's not. Humphrey men make good waffles but pies are not exactly our...area. Even with waffles, whatever we're cooking is going to work only if we like the person we're preparing it for. Simple trick -we put a lot more effort." he chuckled "it's weird" he ended measuring flour and sugar he needed to prepare this._

_"Why are you making the pie then?" Blair asked the most logical, but then again so ambigous question leaving him staggered for a moment or two._

_"I don't know. Maybe because I have nothing to lose?" he raised an eyebrow biting his lower lip:_

_"Can you pass me the cinnamon?" Dan asked like he completely forgot who she was. Strange, but even she forgot who she was._

_"Here."_

_Her hand grazed his._

_"Thanks."_

xx

_"My parents were not on good terms lately, we saw this coming. Just Jen sometimes likes to see she wants to see and I'd say I am a bit more...realistic."_

_She nodded putting a large bite of pie in her mouth._

_"What about you?"_

_She gulped._

_"Well my dad lives in France now. He's there with a male model named Roman. He promised he'll make it, but cancelled in the last minute." she took a deep breath "I guess I just wanted to spend one holiday with him around. I really miss the old times." _

_Somehow, it was easier this way. Opening up to a stranger from Brooklyn. _

_Except he was not a stranger, he was Serena's boyfriend._

_"I'm sure they don't mean to do that to us...But yeah, from now on I'll call Thanksgiving a holiday when my parents divorced." he laughed with the irony of it all._

_When they finished the meal they were sitting in silence for a minute or two._

_"Did you like the pie, then?"_

_"Since you don't like me...It was surprisingly tasty. But don't get your hopes high, Humphrey."_

_"Are you feeling better now?"_

_"A little." she twinkled._

_"Wait is that Cedric?" she pointed at the Cabbage patch kid standing on his shelf with books._

_"Wha..how do you..?"_

_"Cabbage patch kid, seriously Humphrey? At least I'm keeping mine secre..."_

_"Wait wait so you do have yours?"_

_She purses her lips "No...I don't."_

_Dan gives her a slight smile and she's caught._

_"Okay, okay...I might..Well at least I don't have a garadge door in the middle of the room, what excuse you might find for that one?"_

_"So what? Makes it more casual?"_

_"Casual how? I am adopting homeless people-casual? If yes I don't want to know where do you keep them."_

_"Says a girl with a Cabbage Patch doll."_

_"Ohhh please! Better shut up, Cedric."_

_"Your choice for books is quite good though." she turned serious, her attention now focused on the shelves in the room._

_"Really? Thanks."_

_When did she turn so nice?_

_"Cabbage Patch is still owning though." she added and he tittered this time._

xx


	2. Chapter 2

**So today is the first time I actually opened my email (I would probably never do that if a friend of mine didn't ask me to, but nm) and I saw how many of you is actually following my both stories. I got really nice reviews on forums and twitter as well so I'm really grateful and appreciate that. I want you guys to know that if you have some suggestions or wishes feel more than free to share (I have tumblr/twitter and an account on tv fanatic so...).**

**Now, back to the fanfic. Hope you enjoy it!**

**xxx**

"So the love of your life and you bonded over...a pie?" Heiley querid leaving the empty plate on the table after she finished her last waffle.

"Oh no, there's a lot more to tell. If you're still interested."

And in all seriousness, Dan thought that this might not be the best idea after all.

"I'd probably skip that pathetic story if I had something smarter to do."

Dan nodded expecting her to leave. It was underastandable. It's not like every daughter wants to know about the girl her dad was madly in love with, knowing the "girl" wasn't her mother.

"But since that's not the case I guess I'm with you on this one. Besides you're a writer so I'll pretend that you have a wild imagination and that none of it is real."

she took a deep breath and sat on the sofa again making herself comfortable.

Watching her laying there curled up with a blanket reminded Dan of the times when she was a small girl. She used to stretch out on the very same spot, demanding to watch a cartoon. And she was a real littlle devil when she was young.

But every night before putting her to sleep, Dan and Heiley's mom would watch cartoons with her until they all become very sleepy, so they they'd spend at least one night per week with their daughter, all three out of their beds lined-up on the sofa.

Ages ago, Blair would sit like that, when she had these well-known "Brooklyn visits", with her head peacefully resting on his shoulder.

But, that was AGES AGO.

"Dad?" Heiley repeated slightly annoyed. "This is the third time I'm calling your name and you seem to be in your own world. Put yourself together!"

"Right" Dan shuddered and cleared his throat.

_**The second thing that reminded him of Blair was even simpler than the first one. A bench.**_

"Okay this is getting even more ridiculous." Heiley pursed her lips in a very Blair-ish way.

At least that's what it seemed to Dan, and that's the only thing ridiculous. He misses her so much, even now that sometimes he sees what he wants to see.

She is still everywhere. He expected it to linger for months, maximum few years, but for all this time the memories they shared remained untouched and never faded away.

_Blair Waldorf continued acting like that Thanksgiving closure never happened. That worked for Dan, because he was with Serena, but after that night he definitely had more respect for Blair and understanding even for her actions towards him._

_This happened on a brunch, one of these special brunches Lily Van Der Woodsen used to throw._

_"I'm so glad you made it!" Serena gushed while giving Dan a great warm hug._

_"Yeah...I'm looking forward to meeting.."_

_"Listen, there's one part in this whole brunch story I might have left out...Dan, this is not a usual..."_

_"Dan Humphrey! It's a pleasure, I'm Lily, Serena's mother." _

_"Nice to meet you." Dan shaked hands with a perfectly "packed" older blonde who was pleasently surprised and -somehow Dan had the impression- also...relieved. Later, he realized that it's because of Serena's history he knew nothing about back then. _

_"Come join us, I think these events are not really the best way for us to get to know each other, but we'll have time for that!" she said leaving the two alone._

_Dan's smile quickly disappeared and he now turned serious again._

_"What did you have to add.."_

_"Nothing just my grand..."_

_"So this is your new.." one older lady interrupted the conversation again squinting at Dan's outfit._

_"Yes grandma, this is my new boyfriend, Dan Humphrey."_

_"Yeah..hi Mrs..."_

_"Darling." CeCe stopped ignoring Dan's words and completely turning to Serena "good luck with that"_

_she replied talking about Dan like he was a prop._

_"Although you must know that we're looking for someone...classy and what's evident and painfully obvious at this moment is that this young guy.."_

_"Dan." Serena said grudgingly._

_"Dan" she corrected herself "is not quite of an escort material."_

_"Grandma I told you I'm not going to that anyway." Serena was now defending herself._

_CeCe nodded._

_"I know, but I hope you didn't blank out the other part...I'm sure you don't want me to say it out loud because even this poor guy beside me hearing that would be an embarrasement."_

_Dan's legs were shaking. His cheeks were burning and for a second he felt even worse than in 6th grade when his friends used to mock him because Rufus accompanied him to school every morning._

_Serena gluped._

_Darn her._

_Dan was utterly confused._

_CeCe raised her champagne glass adding "cheers, enjoy the party you and your...what was the name again?"_

_Of course, then, Dan didn't know that CeCe was the only one who knew everything about Georgina Sparks and was only using it against her. _

_She was being blackmaled by her own grandmother, who obviously didn't seem to care. All she seemed to truly care about was her reputation and status._

_"Oh please don't even bother." he mumbled for himself._

_"Daniel." he said in a shaky voice._

_"Come on Dan, let's go."_

_For the first time, Dan turned around. This was definitely not what you call a "family" brunch since the place was full of the most popular people on the UES._

_One more thing Serena completely left out about this "event"._

_"Dan please don't be..." Serena softly whispered it in his year so she could make it up to him._

_"Yeah, it's fine" he replied still furious dissociating a little._

_"Oh hey look who it is!" she said, her voice suddenly getting a lot more enthusiastic._

_Dan rolled his eyes._

_Blair._

_She coughed and they barely had time to merely check out the other one before Serena spoke._

_"B! I'm glad you made it." she was pulling her in a tight hug. _

_Blair hugged back, but a lot less enthusiastic._

_"Yeah, I think I'll have to go soon though. I have some unfinished business."_

_"Please tell me it's not one of your schemes again!" Serena said in kind of fake laugh._

"_No." she replied shortly._

_Dan saw it in her eyes._

_Something made her feel down again._

_Strange how they both felt like that at the same time, again._

_They shared a few glances but then B dragged S so she can tell her something leaving Dan alone._

_After few minutes when Serena had returned he saw that Blair left._

_"So sorry Dan. B was not feeling okay." _

_He took a deep breath before saying the same sentence in the same pissed voice "It's fine."_

_She didn't notice, she just took his hand and added "Now let's eat."_

_xxx_

_"You really don't like an apple juice?" Serena chuckled while putting another piece of salad in her mouth looking fabulous as always._

_"That's strange."_

_For the first time he was not blinded by the whole "it girl" thing. The first time he had noticed how platonic their relationship seemed, had a realistic view of where exactly does their relationship stand at the moment; _

_Of course she was pretty, she was quite nice..only.._

_When he fell for her he didn't expect their conversations to be this shallow, that's all. Also, the fact that she ignored what how furious he still was because of the thing with her grandmother made him even more upset. _

_She took that for granted._

_All that while keeping this radiant smile on her face._

_Even when Blair was obviously feeling down it took time for her to realize._

_She has that smile even now, when she was slowly drinking her juice sip by sip and enjoying her meal._

_"You didn't eat a thing."_

_"Yeah, I guess I'm not hungry."_

_"Oh" she shuddered._

_"Hey lovebirds." _

_Dan turned to see who it was._

_"Hi Nate." Serena replied politely._

_"Dan, this is Nate Archibald, Blair's boyfriend." she introduced him to Dan._

_"Oh, I've heard a lot about you." Nate continued._

_"I don't like the sound of that." he joked._

_Nate laughed._

_"Man tell me you're not being serious!"_

_"Why?" Dan was bluntly confused._

_Serena was giving some strange signals to Nate now feeling a lot less feverish than a minute before._

_"Oh come on! Serena told me everything about your super famous dad, and your sister who's a young successful fashion designer. Even my mom was a little intrigued when I told her about you and your family! And trust me, it's hard to impress Anne Archibald. Guess Serena got very lucky. Now, Martin, is it?" _

_Martin._

_The next thing Dan remember is ditching Serena and all these people and running away from everything. _

_Serena lied to Nate about who Dan was. Later in life, she explained him everything, but at the very moment Dan left the party. He felt betrayed. He thought Serena wasn't ashamed of who he was._

_He left the building slamming the door. _

_He needed peace. He needed rest._

_He needed it now._

_There was a park near Serena's building._

_This was something he always did. Even when he was a kid, feeling unwanted, he had the custom to sit on the nearest bench and relax._

_It always worked._

_It was unusually cold in New York, even for this part of the year. _

_Still park was full of people of every age. Kids were playing around while their parents were somewhere around, observing them and talking to each other about school and adultery stuff; some people were returning from work or just passing by in a rush, and some of them were just there in order to catch this glaring smell of Christmas in the air. In this time of the year you could feel it everywhere._

_It was full, seemed like not even a one free spot in the whole park._

_Soon he noticed a girl sitting in one corner. She was wearing a bright blue hat and a matching coat, with a what-Dan-would-say is a new expencive pair of Louboutins. He dated Serena Van Der Woodsen for only few weeks and he became fashion-trained. That was a little striking for his image of a Brooklyn writer._

_Not even paying attention to what she was doing he came closer and asked_

_"Is it free?"_

_The girl raised her head and he felt like someone just smashed him in the face._

_The girl was Blair Waldorf._

_xxx_

_"Oh for crying out loud Cabbage Patch!What are you doing here ? Are you stalking ME now by any case?"_

_At first he didn't know what to reply on this one because he felt weakness in her voice; as she was struggling with something just so he wouldn't notice._

_He decided to play dumb so he quickly managed to answer :_

_"No."_

_"Aren't you supposed to live your fairytale out there, meeting this new world and fabulous rich UES elite with your dream-girlfriend?"_

_"I don't know, aren't you supposed to be planning your winter Soiree?"_

_She wipped the tears from her rosy cheeks and went on in typical Blair Waldorf manner._

_"That was the dumbest thing I've ever heard Humphrey! A winter Soiree? Seriously?"_

_"Well...I'm not really into your world anyway, so yeah how could I ever know."_

_Blair glanced at him now noticing that he wasn't in the mood as well. _

_He saw that face once._

_Thanksgiving this year._

_"Not that particulary I care..." she coughed..."But...is everything alright?"_

_This was a grand gesture in Dan's opinion._

_Especially since Serena didn't even care enough to ask such thing._

_"I was about to ask the same thing."_

_"I'm not.."_

_" 'Cause I'm not and I.."_

_Their eyes met and she felt something...strange for a second._

_Well it's cold and she probably even got a temperature by now. Maybe she even has hallucinations._

_After an hour spent in the park Blair still didn't agree to have a cup of tea with him, despite the fact her whole body was shaking. This weather was intolerable._

_He felt sorry for Bher._

_Just seeing her hands trambling like that gave him a shivery feeling as well so he promised he'll be back in few minutes and dropped to the nearest coffee shop to get them a tea and a sachet of something that looked like cookies._

_"Serena just isn't that experienced when it comes to serious relationships. She was never really...commited but she cares about you Dan."_

_she said carefully chewing what's left of her bisquit and taking the last sip of tea that was still hot and giving off smoke in the air._

_He nodded "Yeah..."_

_"What happened with you and Nate?" he asked._

_Then she told him everything about Nate's parents pushing them both too hard, how she feels that Nate's doesn't appreciate enough all the things she's giving him every day..._

_"I'm sorry. You don't deserve that."_

_"You really think so?"_

_He looked at her straight in the eyes._

_Her ruby cheeks, her delicate skin. Her lips even now a little chapped because of the cold. Her eyes and eyelashes, and movement. The way she talks. The way she smiles._

_He never noticed none of this before._

_She looked so damn beautiful that it almost made him wonder how is it even possible for a guy not to care enough about her. _

_Dan always got to see the other, worse, side of her but this was the very first time he actually got to know her better and...she had so many qualities._

_After she called his name bringing him back to reality she replied :_

_"I really think that."_

_xx_


End file.
